Chief Election Commissioner of India

Mr. Navin Chawla (Chief Election Commissioner)

Mr. Navin Chawla (born on 30th July 1945) has been declared as the new Chief Election Commissioner of India by Honbl'e President Smt. Pratibha Devi Singh Patil. Mr. Chawla will hold the charge from April 20, 2009, as Mr. N. Gopalaswami is getting retired on the same date. Mr. Chawla will become the 16th Chief Election Commissioner of India and will hold the office charge till July 29, 2010, as he will turn 65 years of age.

Mr. Navin Chawla has covered a long distance to reach this position. Some of the chief aspects of his journey are:

Education
Mr. Chawla completed his schooling from the Lawrence School, Sanawar, Himachal Pradesh, in the year 1961. He was a very bright student of his time and received the prestigious Govt. of India scholarship two times.

The details of the university examinations passed by him are as under:

• B.A. (Hons.) History, St. Stephen’s College, Delhi (1962-66)
• B.A. (Hons.) History, London University (1965-67) (obtained an upper Second Division)
• Diploma in Social Administration, The London School of Economics (1968) In addition to the above mentioned degrees, he had also been a fellow of the Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University (1996-1997).

Career
Navin Chawla passed the civil services examination in the year 1969 and became an IAS officer. After that he had held many important positions in the Government of India. A brief descript ion of the same is given below:

• 1971-73: Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Delhi
• 1973-75: Additional District Magistrate, Delhi
• 1975-77:
  • Secretary to Lt. Governor, Delhi
  • Served as the Director of Delhi Tourism Development Corporation
  • Director, Delhi State Industrial Development Corporation
  • Director, Delhi Financial Corporation
• 1977-79: Collector, Lakshadweep
• 1979-80:
  • Finance Secretary, Pondicherry
  • Additional Secretary, Town Planning
• 1980-81: Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Labour
• 1981-84:
  • Director, Ministry of Labour
  • Member of the Indian delegation to the ILO Conference, Geneva from 1982-84
• 1984-86: On assignment to the International Labour Organisation, Bangkok
• 1987-89: General Manager, Super Bazar, Delhi
• 1989-90: Secretary, Medical and Public Health, Delhi Administration
• 1991-92:
  • Resident Representative of the Government of Goa in Delhi
  • Joint Secretary (Broadcasting), Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, New Delhi (Nov., 1992 to Oct., 1996)
• 1996: Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, New Delhi
• 1997-98: Chairman of the Delhi Vidyut (Electricity) Board (there was a significant increase in the revenues in his tenure)
• 1998-2000: Principal Secretary, Govt. of Delhi
• 2000-01: Principal Secretary, Government of Pondicherry
• 2001-03: Secretary, Union Public Service Commission, New Delhi
• July, 2003 to Sep., 2003: Special Secretary Ministry of Environment & Forests
• Oct., 2003 to May, 2004: Secretary to Government of India, Department of to Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs & Food and Public Distribution
• May 2004 to May 2005: Union Information and Broadcasting Secretary (it was his last posting in the civil service)

This is to be noted that the information about Mr. Navin Chawla's career provided above is not in detail. It is summarized for the sake of easy understanding and only the relevant parts of information are included.